The
Key thought of this series, the main truth that we will be coming back to
throughout this series is this: “To get a better life, you have to let go of the good life.”
There
are some things in this life that are good and there are other things in this
life that are better. Allow me to illustrate what I mean
ILLUSTRATION- A few weeks ago I made a
breakfast sandwich in my kitchen at home, and it was good.
The
very next day, I went to an eating establishment in Nackawic and had their
breakfast sandwich. It was better than the one I made at home.
Some
things in life are good; other things are better, and to get a better life, you have to let go of
the good life.
ILLUSTRATION- My wife and I recently made
changes to our sleeping quarters.
Up until recently, we had been sleeping in/on a double bed.
This
bed served us well for 9 ½ years, but neither one of us were getting the beauty
sleep that we desperately needed—(some more than others, right babe?) and so,
we went out and purchased a KING-SIZED BED!!!
The
double bed was good… for a while, but the king-sized bed is so much better!!
Some
things in life are good; other things are better, and to get a better life, you have to let go of
the good life.
Bear with me as
I share another illustration:
ILLUSTRATION- the Toronto Maple Leafs are
not good; but the Mighty Montreal Canadiens, they are, well, better!
In
order to get a better life, you’ll have to let go of the good life.
Some
times in life we have the choice between two things. Sometimes we have a choice
between right and wrong.
When the choice
is between right and wrong, between good and evil, followers of Jesus are
instructed to choose right, because it’s always better to obey God.
But there are
other times in this life that the choices that we have to make are between two
very good things.
Lemon meringue
pie or PBCC cookies? Both are good things, but one of these things is better!
Making the
choice between something good and something better can be difficult, but when
given the opportunity to choose, let's choose better, because better is, well,
better.
The tragic part
of life is that many of us are settling for the good life, when God has
something indescribably better for our life.
And to get a
better life, you’ll have to let go of the good life.
God doesn’t want
you and me to settle for the good life; God wants us to thrive with a better
life!
Jesus said: “A thief comes to
steal and kill and destroy, but I came to give life—life in all its fullness.” (John 10:10, NCV)
God doesn’t want
us to settle for second best.
God didn’t send
His Son to this earth, to suffer and die on the Cross, and rise again 3 days
later, so we could live a good life.
God sent His Son
so we could live a better life!
In order to
experience this better life, we'll have to let go of some things: some bad
things, some good things, because to get a better life, you have to let go of the good life.
Throughout this
series, we will be looking at verses with the word Better in them, and our
first verse is taken from Psalm 84:10, but before we look at that verse, I
would draw your attention to verses 1&2.
The Psalmist
says: “How
lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty!
2 My soul yearns,
even faints, for the courts of the LORD…” (Psalm
84:1-2a, NIV)
The Psalmist
described his desire: He wanted to be where God was.
In the Old
Testament, this was first in the Tabernacle, and then, later on, in the Temple.
The Psalmist wanted
to get as close to God has he possibly could.
“I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter
the courts of the Lord. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout
joyfully to the living God.” (Psalm
84:2, NLT2)
There was only
one place that the psalmist wanted to be: In the presence of God.
It wasn’t good
enough just to hear about God, the psalmist wanted to be where God was.This was
the cry of his heart.
Then, in verse
10, he declares:
“Better is one day in your courts—better is one
day in your presence--- than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in
the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.” (Psalm
84:10, NIV)
The Psalmist declared
that one day in the presence of God, one day in His courts, was better than
anything else this world had to offer.
To prove his
point, he was willing to be a doorkeeper—one of the lowest positions—in the
temple of God.
He wanted to do
this, because one day with God was better than a thousand days somewhere else.
Part of our
problem, is that most of us don’t believe that one day with God is better than
a thousand days anywhere else.
ILLUSTRATION- I don’t know about you, but
when I tend to leave God out of my day, that day is awful.
I worry more, I pray less, I become envious of other people, I think I’m
overworked and underpaid!
And
then, we rationalize that this is all there is to life, and we become upset and
frustrated because we can’t fix our life.
But when someone asks us how we are doing we say: “Oh, I’m good!”
If
that’s the good life, I don’t want it! I don’t want it; because the Bible tells
me there is a better life!
The
psalmist reminded us of this better way when he said: “A single day in your courts
is better than a thousand anywhere else.” (Psalm 84:10a, NLT2)
One
day with God is better because our sins have been forgiven, our hearts have
been cleansed, and we have been given eternal life!
One
day with God is better because “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (John 1:14a, NIV)
One
day with God is better because His ways are not our ways; His thoughts are not
our thoughts. (See Is. 55:8)
One
day with God is better because we have the promise of the Holy Spirit, who is
with us, who is leading and guiding us.
One
day is with God is better because He is with us no matter what happens to us!
(Mt. 28:20)
One
day with God is better because we have a High Priest who understands our
weaknesses and invites us to approach the Throne of God with freedom and
confidence. (Heb. 4:15-16)
One
single day with God is better because “His divine power has given us everything we need for life
and godliness….” (2 Peter 1:3a, NIV)
One
day with God is better because when the storms of life come—and the storms of
life always come—God will uphold us with His righteous right hand.
One day with God
is better.
If
this is true, if one day with God is better, how do we spend one day with God,
when many of us can’t even pray for 15 minutes without our mind turning toward something
else that we should be doing?
How do we have one day—one
better day—with God?
By living with
an ongoing, unending awareness of His presence!
The
Psalmist recognized the ongoing, unending awareness of the presence of God when
he wrote Psalm 139:
“I can never escape
from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!
8 If I go up to
heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there.
9 If I ride the
wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, 10 even there your
hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.
11 I could ask the
darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— 12 but even in
darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night
shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.”
(Psalm 139:7-12, NLT2)
To live with an
ongoing, unending awareness of God’s presence is to recognize that He is
everywhere present and nowhere absent.
He is
everywhere, at all times, and there is nowhere that we can be that God is not.
To have a better
day with God is to recognise that He wants to be our life, not just a part of
our life.
We have a
tendency to compartmentalize things. We have our work life, we have our social
life, we have our church life, we have our private life….
But life with
God is infinitely better than having little compartments.
Paul wrote in
Colossians 3: “When
Christ, who is your life….” (Col.
3:4, NIV)
Jesus Christ is
to be our life, and this is infinitely better than anything that we could ever
dream or scheme.
The psalmist
said “Better is
one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere….” (Psalm 84:10a,
NIV)
Why is one day
with God better? Because God longs to do life with us, because God longs to be
with us.
I can’t help but
wonder this morning, how many of us are selling ourselves short? How many of us
are missing out on something better?
Sure, we might
be living the good life, but to have a better life, you have to let go of the good life.
To have life
with God, you’ll have to give some things up, some bad things, some destructive
things, some sinful things, but you’ll also have to give up some good things,
but what you’ll get in return is something much better.
The Psalmist
recognized that life in the presence of God was infinitely better than life
outside the presence of God.
He was so
confident of this, that he was willing to be a doorkeeper in the house of God,
just so he could be close to His presence.
He was willing
to let go of something good to enjoy something better.
ILLUSTRATION- Beth and I didn’t know how
much sleep we weren’t getting until we got a new bed.
I
thought it was “normal” to hog the bed, to steal the blankets- even to wind up
sleeping on the couch from time to time. I thought that was as good as it gets.
But
then we found something better, and now, we can stretch out and enjoy the big
bed, because it is soooo much better.
Author
and Pastor Craig Groeschel reminds us that: “If all you do is seek what this world has,
all you’re going to desire is what this world gives.
But if you start to seek God, you’re going to develop a daily
desperation for him.” (better sermon 1)
The
Psalmist desired to be with God—he wanted to be in the very place where God
was. Nothing mattered more to him that being in God’s presence.
Don’t
settle for the good life when you can have the better life.
Don’t
settle for less than God’s best by thinking that you know what’s best for your
life. How can you, you didn’t make you!
God
wants for you to live a better life, but to have that better life, you’ll have
to let go of the good life, but what you’ll gain is something much better.
Do
you need to let go of your good life and begin living the better life?
Do
you need to invite Jesus into your heart? Do you need to develop an ongoing,
unending awareness of God’s presence?
There
is only one way, and that is by surrendering our entire life—mind, body, soul
and spirit over to God.
“What
is more pleasing to the Lord: your
burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice?
Listen!
Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than
offering the fat of rams.” (1 Sam. 15:22, NIV)
Giving our lives over to God is always better than hanging on to
them.
If you need to allow God to work in, or on, your life, please do so
today. Don’t settle for the good life, when something better is available.
This doesnt mean that life will always be grand. It will suck from
time to time, but better is one day with God, than a thousand days without God.
Remember: “To get a
better life, you have to let go of the good life.” and the Bible
says:
“Better is one day
in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the
house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.” (Psalm
84:10, NIV)
The Band is
going to come and lead us in our closing song.
If God has been
knocking on your heart today, He wants you to let go of the good life and get
the better life instead
Don't leave this
place without having done business with God, because one day with God is
infinitately better than a thousand days without God.|
No comments:
Post a Comment